Goddess Kumari: the legends of its origin- i

Ten years back on my first visit to the Indra Jatra festival at Zero Point, Gangtok I happened to see a photo frame of a small girl in a red costume significantly distinct from other girls of her age with the painted third eye on her forehead. That was my first day with Indra Jatra, Newar’s biggest festival at Sikkim, and of course with the goddess Kumari, which in 2011 was declared a Government Holiday by the State Government of Sikkim. 

The festival highlighted the pulling off of a chariot by the devotees with a photo frame of Goddess Kumari on it that was moved through the streets of Gangtok from Zero Point to MG Marg. The chariot was led by masked dancers with faces of deities in honour of God Indra and a long procession of Newar devotees.

Getting back to the story of Kumari, it is said there are eleven living goddesses known as Kumari in Nepal. The Kumari of Kathmandu also known as the Royal Kumari is considered to be the most significant and largely followed by the Newar population across the globe.

In Nepal, the Newars follow an exceptional customary in which young girls with special characters are formally installed as living Kumari; regularly worshipped until they attain some biological impurities, and they are replaced with another young girl who also has to undergo some set-ups to be identified as a Kumari. The history of Kumari worship in Nepal is hidden in a great deal of legend and mystery. Though there is evidence that a goddess of this name had been worshipped for a very long time.

Him Lal Ghimire in his article A Study of Living Goddess Kumārī: The Source of Cultural Tourism in Nepal writes ‘Kumari is derived from the Sanskrit word Kaumarya, which means princess. The word Kumārī literally means “virgin girl” in Nepali. The Kumārī or Kumārī Devi comes from the Hindu faith however most of the “traditional” Kumārī in Kathmandu is from the Newar community. The Kumārī is a prepubescent girl who is hailed as manifestations of divine and spiritual energy, the living incarnation of the Hindu goddess of power Durga who is also named as Talejū (Tulaja) Bhawani, Bhagawati, Kālī, Pārvatī, Tripurasundarī, Ambikā, etc’.

The word Taleju is derived from the indigenous Newar language and translates approximately as the “Goddess of the High Temple” as it is found in the book An Advertised Secret:  The Goddess Taleju and the King of Kathmandu, in Tantra in Practice published in 2005 which indicates her status as the chosen deity of Nepalese kings dating back to the fourteenth century when this goddess likely first migrated to Nepal from northern Indian.

Most of the chronicles and oral traditions however place the origin of the royal worships in the Malla period.  MR Allen mentions in his book Kumari or ’virgin’ worship in Kathmandu valley published in 1976, naming Trailokya Malla, a late sixteenth-century ruler of an undivided kingdom with his capital at Bhadgaon, Siddhinarasingh, a seventeenth-century king of Patan, and yet others Jayaprakasa Malla, the mid-eighteenth century Kathmandu monarch who lost his kingdom to the Gorkhas among those who were involved in Kumari worshipping culture.

“Throughout India, Nepal, and other regions of South Asia there is a strong and long-standing ritual tradition—evidence of Kumārī worship dates back to the origins of India’s oldest scripture, the Ṛig Veda (circa 2000 B.C.E.)—in which prepubescent girls are venerated as incarnations (avatāra) of the divine feminine, called Devī or Śakti” quotes Jeffrey S. Lidke in his book Kumārī:  Nepal’s Eternally Living Goddess. 

Kumari is highly regarded as a deity whose blessings come true for those who attend her. As such every day, many devotees seek her blessings. She needs to follow her rituals very strictly that she cannot talk to anyone except her family members or her caretakers. As such every day, many devotees seek her blessings. A member of her family must worship her each morning as she sits on her throne. Usually, it’s her mother who dresses her every day in red clothing, paints her special design, and other marking as Kumari has to appear. She lives in her Kumari Ghar with her parents or caretakers; she can never go outside other than to attend a few major festivals during the year. When she has to attend any ceremonies, she is carried.

Legends say, Kumari used to bless the King by marking his forehead with tika mixed with uncooked rice grain and red colour. The blessing during the Kumari Jatra festival brought good fortune to the King and his kingdom was protected from evil forces. The identification of the royal Kumari with the Great Goddess reveals a key facet of her identity and function as a living divinity. She is the embodiment of power or shakti that protects the nation against any and all enemies of the state.